August 16, 2024
TikTok is not playing. But time is running out and the TikTok ban is coming.
We are just 5 months away from the United States ban on TikTok passed into law by Congress earlier this year. And TikTok and the Department of Justice have been going back and forth battling in the US Appeals court over whether or not the ban is even constitutional.
TikTok says it’s not – for several reasons. And the Department of Justice says it is for several reasons. Late last night TikTok dropped this 37 page brief to the federal appeals court in Washington DC – blasting every single argument the Department of Justice recently filed – and I told you about in this video. The main take away — TikTok says “the government’s submissions to this court make its strategy clear: invoke national security to carve out new exceptions to constitutional safeguards.”
TikTok’s brief uses the words “wrong” “misunderstand” “inaccurate” “mistake” “errors” “misleading” and “unaware” at least 50 times in this document to describe the DOJ’s arguments.
Here’s an example: the Department of Justice said to the court with its full chest that TikTok needs to be banned because it is a national security threat because its parent company Bytedance is based in China. For the record there is no publicly available evidence of what exactly the national security threat is – the government’s brief includes about 20 pages of redactions which we assume is that classified evidence but publicly – don’t know what it is and TikTok says the government didn’t share it with them either. And the US government says because TikTok is a national security threat, the government has every right to ban the platform. Further – DOJ says TikTok has “misapplied the first amendment law” saying the constitution does not “guarantee the right to communicate one’s views at all times and places or in any manner that may be desired.”
Well in this document TikTok says that’s bogus on a lot of levels. The brief says Congress and the US government are evoking “national security concerns” with absolutely no evidence– so they can hide the true reason why congress decided TikTok needs to be sold or banned on January 19th. TikTok says the reality is – the government just doesn’t like the content on the platform. And TikTok says that’s not a reason to trample the first amendment rights of the 170 million American users and the company itself. TikTok says “…congress may not silence a U.S. company’s speech because it wants to block content that Congress deems “propaganda.” And the government repeatedly admits it has no evidence that China ever manipulated the content Americans see on TikTok.”
“No precedent supports the government’s dramatic rewriting of what counts as protected speech. TikTok inc., a US company, is not stripped of first amendment protection because it is ultimately owned by Bytedance ltd., a cayman-incorporated holding company. Does the government seriously believe, for example, that politico (owned by a German company) has no first amendment rights?”
“The government cites no evidence of this supposed Chinese control—and its contention is flatly wrong. … the recommendation engine is in the United States, controlled by an American company, and safeguarded by Oracle.”
And this goes on and on with every single other argument the government is making. The bottom line is –TikTok wants the US appeals court to either throw out this law altogether because it’s unconstitutional or – if it decides to hear what the government has to say – then at least put the ban on hold while the case plays out. Oral arguments are scheduled for September 16th.
Read the brief from TikTok here.
